Serverless Computing
An introduction to serverless technologies
What is serverless computing?
Serverless computing enables developers to build applications faster by eliminating the need for them to manage infrastructure. With serverless applications, the cloud service provider automatically provisions, scales, and manages the infrastructure required to run the code.
In understanding the definition of serverless computing, it’s important to note that servers are still running the code. The serverless name comes from the fact that the tasks associated with infrastructure provisioning and management are invisible to the developer. This approach enables developers to increase their focus on the business logic and deliver more value to the core of the business. Serverless computing helps teams increase their productivity and bring products to market faster, and it allows organizations to better optimize resources and stay focused on innovation.
Top benefits of serverless computing
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No infrastructure management
Using fully managed services enables developers to avoid administrative tasks and focus on core business logic. With a serverless platform, you simply deploy your code, and it runs with high availability.
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Dynamic scalability
With serverless computing, the infrastructure dynamically scales up and down within seconds to match the demands of any workload.
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Faster time to market
Serverless applications reduce the operations dependencies on each development cycle, increasing development teams’ agility to deliver more functionality in less time.
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More efficient use of resources
Shifting to serverless technologies helps organizations reduce TCO and reallocate resources to accelerate the pace of innovation.
Serverless application patterns
Developers build serverless applications using a variety of application patterns—many of which align with approaches that are already familiar—to meet specific requirements and business needs.
Serverless functions
Serverless functions accelerate development by using an event-driven model, with triggers that automatically execute code to respond to events and bindings to seamlessly integrate additional services. A pay-per-execution model with sub-second billing charges only for the time and resources it takes to execute the code.
Serverless Kubernetes
Developers bring their own containers to fully managed, Kubernetes-orchestrated clusters that can automatically scale up and down with sudden changes in traffic on spiky workloads.
Serverless workflows
Serverless workflows take a low-code/no-code approach to simplify orchestration of combined tasks. Developers can integrate different services (either cloud or on-premises) without coding those interactions, having to maintain glue code, or learning new APIs or specifications.
Serverless application environments
With a serverless application environment, both the back end and front end are hosted on fully managed services that handle scaling, security, and compliance requirements.
Serverless API gateway
A serverless API gateway is a centralized, fully managed entry point for serverless backend services. It enables developers to publish, manage, secure, and analyze APIs at global scale.
Why an end-to-end serverless platform is important
A serverless approach offers developers, teams, and organizations a level of abstraction that enables them to minimize the time and resources invested in infrastructure management. Every component of an application benefits from this approach, from computing and the database engine to messaging, analytics, and AI. Using an end-to-end serverless platform that provides a comprehensive set of serverless technologies is the best way to ensure that the organization gains the maximum benefit from going serverless.
